Application Settings

Scheme:

Select one of the graphics schemes built into FLTK. It's helpful to verify the look of various schemes for an application design.

Options:

Various options to make life as a developer more convenient.

Recent Files:

FLUID keeps track of recently opened files.

External Editor:

Users that don't like the built-in FLUID code editor can enter a shell command here that opens the content of Code nodes in an external editor. FLUID does its best to pick up on changed content or when the editor is closed.

Overlays:

The Position Guides are little red arrows that indicate if snap points are found. See the Layout tab for details. Restricted Areas are areas where widgets from within the same group overlap. They are visible in the project window as a diagonally hashed pattern. Ghosted Group Outlines show faint frames around groups that would otherwise be invisible in the project window.

Project Settings

Header File, Code File:

These fields are used to build the file path and name of the generated header and source file. If one field is empty the value defaults to .h and .cxx respectively. If a name starts with a ., FLUID assumes that the rest of the text is a file extension. The code file name is then generated by replacing the extension of the .fl project file name.

Todo:: Document the exact way the source and header file paths are calculated for interactive FLUID, and for FLUID launched from the command line.

Include Header from Code:

If checked, the statement to include the header file is automatically generated in one of the first lines of the source file.

Menu shortcuts use FL_COMMAND:

Setting this option will replace FL_CTRL and FL_META as a modifier for shortcuts with the platform aware modifiers FL_COMMAND and FL_CONTROL, making shortcuts more portable between macOS and Windows/Linux.

allow Unicode:

If unchecked, Unicode characters in strings are escaped. If checked, the Unicode character is stored in the source code in UTF-8 encoding.

avoid early include:

FLUID by default includes <FL/Fl.H> early in the header file. If this option is checked, users can include other files before including the FL header. The user must then include <FL/Fl.H> later using a Declaration node.

Layout Preferences

Layouts are a collection of hints that help when interactively positioning and resizing widgets in the project window. Layouts come in a set of three for the application window, for dialog boxes, and for toolboxes.

Layout:

The layout pulldown menu lets users choose from a list of existing layouts. The plus button creates a new set of layouts based on the currently selected layout. The pulldown menu has items to rename, load, and save layouts. It can also change the location where the layout is stored. The FLUID beaker is for layouts that are predefined in FLUID, the portrait icon stores as user preference, the document icon stores the layout in the .fl file, and the disk icon lets users store layout in external files.

Window Margin and Grid:

Snap widget position to that margin in relation to the window. The grid snaps widgets to fixed intervals.

Group Margin and Grid:

Snap widget position to that margin in relation to the group. The grid snaps widgets to fixed intervals relative to the top left of the group.

Tabs Margin:

Snap the tab inside Fl_Tabs to the tab border and the offset given in Margins.

Widget Minimum, Increment, and Gap:

Minimum sets the minimal width of a widget. Increment is the size multiplier added to the Minimum value. Gap is the preferred distance to other widgets in the same group.

Label Font, Text Font:

The preferred label and text font and size for new widgets.

Shell Commands

Shell Command List:

A list of all currently available shell commands. The portrait symbol in front of the name indicates that the script is stored in the user preferences. The document symbol saves them within the .fl project file.

[+] adds a fresh new script to the list, [++] duplicates the currently selected script. [DEL] deletes it, and [v] offers import and export functionality. The [T] button shows the terminal window, and finally the [Run] button runs the selected shell script.

Selecting a shell script will fill in the bottom half of the dialog.

Name:

This is the name of the script as it appears in the Shell Command List.

Menu Label:

Shell scripts that match the Condition flag are also available for quick access in the Shell menu in the main window and via shortcut key combinations. This is the text that is used for the menu entry.

Shortcut:

Assign a keyboard shortcut to this shell script for even faster access. FLUID does not check if a shortcut is already used elsewhere. Try to avoid collisions, especially when the script is part of a project file.

Store:

Choose where to store the settings of this shell script, either in the user preferences or as part of the .fl project file.

Condition:

Shell scripts can be quite different for different platforms hosting FLUID. This choice limits scripts to specific platforms. Multiple scripts can have the same shortcut if they have different conditions.

Shell Script:

This is a text field for the shell script. The [v] pulldown menu has a list of variables that are replaced with the corresponding value before running the script. The zoom button gives access to a much larger shell script editor.

The options below are a list of actions that can be executed before running the script.

Internationalization

The Locale tab can be used to configure optional internationalization. FLUID supports GNU gettext and POSIX catgets.

FLUID supports internationalization (I18N for short) of label strings and tooltips used by widgets. The GNU gettext option also supports deferred translation of statically initialized menu item labels. The setting panel (Alt+p) provides access to the I18N options.

FLUID supports three methods of I18N: none, GNU gettext, and POSIX catgets. The "none" method is the default and just passes the label strings as-is to the widget constructors.

The "GNU gettext" method uses GNU gettext (or a similar text-based I18N library) to retrieve a localized string before calling the widget constructor.

The GNU gettext option adds some preprocessor code to the source file:

#include <libintl.h>
#ifndef gettext_noop
#  define gettext_noop(text) text
#endif

and the gettext call around strings in the source code:

new Fl_Button(50, 50, 54, 40, "Button");
// ->
new Fl_Button(50, 50, 54, 40, gettext("Button"));

FLUID's code support for GNU gettext is limited to calling a function or macro to retrieve the localized label; you still need to call setlocale() and textdomain() or bindtextdomain() to select the appropriate language and message file.

Include: controls the header file to include for I18N; by default this is <libintl.h>, the standard I18N file for GNU gettext.

Conditional: If this field contains a macro name, i18n will only be compiled into the product if this macro is defined. The build system should define the macro only if all required headers and libraries are available. If the macro is not defined, no headers are included and gettext passes text through untranslated.

Function: controls the function (or macro) that will retrieve the localized message; by default the gettext function will be called.

Static Function: names a macro that will mark static text fields for extraction with the xgettext tool. The default macro name is gettext_noop and will be defined as #define gettext_noop(text) text right after the #include statement. FLUID will call gettext on static texts later, after the textdomain was set by the user.

See also: GNU gettext special cases

The "POSIX catgets" method uses the POSIX catgets function to retrieve a numbered message from a message catalog before calling the widget constructor.

FLUID's code support for POSIX catgets allows you to use a global message file for all interfaces or a file specific to each .fl file; you still need to call setlocale() to select the appropriate language.

This option adds some preprocessor code to the source file:

#include <nl_types.h>
// Initialize I18N stuff now for menus...
#include <locale.h>
static char *_locale = setlocale(LC_MESSAGES, "");
static nl_catd _catalog = catopen("", 0);

and the catgets call around strings in the source code:

new Fl_Button(50, 50, 54, 40, "Button");
// ->
new Fl_Button(50, 50, 54, 40, catgets(_catalog,1,6,"Button"));

Include: controls the header file to include for I18N; by default this is <nl_types.h>, the standard I18N file for POSIX catgets.

Conditional: include the header file only if this preprocessor macro is defined.

Catalog: controls the name of the catalog file variable to use when retrieving localized messages; by default the file field is empty which forces a local (static) catalog file to be used for all of the windows defined in your .fl file.

Set: controls the set number in the catalog file. The default set is 1 and rarely needs to be changed.

User Interface Preferences

This tab lets users change the font and color of text in the widget browser. The settings are stored in the user preferences.

All changes are directly visible in the widget browser.